PHILIPPINE HISTORY

The Philippines in Ancient Times

(200,000 B.C. - 1300 A.D.
Early settlers
- Some theories on Philippine prehistory suggest that the
Philippines and the rest of the islands in Southeast Asia
may have been sites of human evolution between 200,000
and 30,000 years ago.
- One theory says that during the Ice Age, the waters
around what is now the Philippines fell about 47.5 meters
below its level. Because of this, large areas of land
came to the surface and formed “land bridges” to mainland
Asia.
➢ The earliest stone tools and animal fossils found in
Cagayan Valley in northern Philippines were dated back to
at least 200,000 years ago.

❖ Cagayan Man or homo erectus philippinensis - they had

similar characteristics as the Java Man of Inndonesia and
Peking Man of China.

➢ In 1962, a skull cap was discovered in the Tabon caves of

Palawan.
- Archeologists learned
that man had been in the
Philippines for at least
22,000 years.
- The cave where the Tabon
Man was found was dated
back to half a million
years old and had been
occupied fpr more or less
50,000 years.
- A piece of charcoal which dated
back to 30,000 years was found
which may indicate the first
use of fire in the archipelago.
- They hunted animals such as the
pygmy elephant and rhinoceros.
In some languages of the
Philippines, including Tagalog,
the word for elephant is gadya.
- The early Filipinos lived in
caves.
- They gathered food from their
immediate environment.
- They wore clothing made from
materials that they got from
nature.
- Some 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, the
ancestors of the Negritos (Aeta, Ati,
Dumagat), came to the Philippines by
crossing the “land bridges.”
- Were said to have come from the south, by
way of Palawan and Borneo.
- Another Negrito migration occurred a little
later by way of Sulu and Mindanao. These
immigrants used blow gun, bow and arrow.
- They practiced dry agriculture similar to
the
- that is practiced today by some hill and
mountain hill.
- Their tools were made of stone.
- Their clothing consisted of bark of trees,
and their houses were made of leaves and
branches of trees.
- More than 7,000 years ago, long
after the ice that covered the world
melted, the resulting rise in the
sea level ushered in the arrival of
another group of people, the
Austronesians.
- They came to Southeast Asia by boats
from Southern China.
- They had brown skin (kayumanggi).
- Much later, some of them came to the
Philippines from Indochina and South China
also by boats.
- They practiced dry agriculture and produced
yams, rice, and gabe.
- Their clothing consisted of pounded bark of
trees with various printed designs.
- The Kalingas, the Gaddangs, the Apayaos,
the Igorots, and the Ilongots, all
indigenous groups of Luzon; the native
Visayans; the Tagbanuas of Palawan, the
Bagobos, the Bilaans, the Manobos, and the
Tirurays of Mindanao, are probably
descendants of this group.
The Kalingas The Gaddangs
The Apayaos The Igorots

The Ilongots

Native Visayans
The Tagbanaus of Palawan
The Bagobos
 The
Tirurays
of
Mindanao

The Bilaans

The Manobos
- By 500 to 800 B.C., the early
Filipinos knew how to make copper
and bronze implements.
- They irrigated their rice lands and
built the first rice terraces in
the Philippines.
- Another migration allegedly
occurred about 300 or 200 B.C., or
more than two thousand years ago.
- Those who came to Luzon by way of
Palawan and Mindoro were said to
have known irrigation, smelting,
and manufacturing of weapons,
tools, utensils, and ornaments made
of iron and other metals.
- The latest group was more advanced
than the previous immigrants. They
had a syllabary or alphabet that
might have come from India.
- These Austronesians were the ancestors of the settlers that traded with
ancient China and early southeast Asian communities. They would later
lay the foundations of Islam in Sulu and Mindanao.

❖ These theories of migrations, however, are still subjects of debates. The

artifacts are not enough to warrant definite conclusions about Philippine
prehistory.
Economic life
- The ancient Filipinos practiced
agriculture, which was the main
source of their sustenance.
- Rice, coconut, sugar cane, cotton,
banana, hemp, orange, and many kinds
of fruits and vegetables were raised.
- Land cultivation was done in two
ways: the kaingin system and tillage.
Kaingin system tillage system

- Where the land was cleared - Where the land was plowed
by burning shrubs and and harrowed, then followed
bushes. The cleared lands by planting.
was then planted to crops.
Antonio pigafetta
- The historian of the Magellan
expedition which reached the
Philippines in 1521, said that he
found in Sugbu (Cebu) such
foodstuffs as sorgo, orange,
garlic, gourd, lemon, coconut,
sugar cane, and many fruits.
 irrigation
- They increased their crop
production by irrigating ditches.